Category: Book Reviews

Novels in Letters

I love reading epistolary novels — once in a while, it’s really quite refreshing to read narrative that’s broken down into pieces of interesting text (e.g. letters, reports, memos, etc.) rather than plod through long chapters. There’s also the wicked fun of reading other people’s correspondence and attempting to piece together a story based on them.

My favorite epistolary novels include Dracula by Bram Stoker, Griffin and Sabine by Nick Bantock, Daddy Long Legs by Jean Webster,  The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova, and even Meg Cabot’s Every Boy’s Got One. I read a couple more recently: Up the Down Staircase by Bel Kaufman, and Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn.

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The Talented Mr. Ripley (Patricia Highsmith)

I was in the mood for a psychological thriller, so I finally unearthed my copy of The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith. I haven’t seen the 1999 film (with young Matt Damon, Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow!), but I’ve been meaning to read the book ever since I mooched a copy, although I still have to “do a Blooey” (er, a term my book club friends coined for my compulsion for “upgrading” mass market paperbacks into trade paperbacks and trade paperbacks into hardcovers) on it — it’s a movie cover and a mass market paperback.

The Talented Mr. Ripley was written in 1955, and is the first of a series of novels featuring a conman and anti-hero named Tom Ripley (the other books being Ripley Under Ground, Ripley’s Game, The Boy Who Followed Ripley and Ripley Under Water). The novel was awarded the Edgar Allan Poe Award by the Mystery Writers of America.

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The Little Prince Deluxe Pop-up

The Little Prince is one of the most meaningful books in my life and I never get tired of reading it. There is also a favorite memory attached to the book — forty four girls in blue and white uniforms, enthralled as one very special teacher read us the following lines:

“Goodbye,” said the fox. “And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

“What is essential is invisible to the eye,” the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember.

“It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important.”

“It is the time I have wasted for my rose — ” said the little prince, so that he would be sure to remember.

“Men have forgotten this truth,” said the fox. “But you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. You are responsible for your rose…”

“I am responsible for my rose,” the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember.

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Putting the Aaahhh in Spa

I love getting spa treatments — that little window of time for relaxing and revitalizing is a godsend, whether it’s a heavenly massage,  beautifying facial, a glam hair treatment, or a foot spa for your aching feet.

One of my recent memorable spa experiences is the Lulur Ken Dedes massage at Win’s Spa in Batam, Indonesia (we took a ferry from Singapore) — around 175,000 Rupiah (more or less SGD 30 or USD $20), which is a two-hour package inclusive of a traditional message, sauna, body scrub, and herbal soak. Apparently, “Ken Dedes” is a royal beauty treatment named after Princess Ken Dedes of the Singosari Empire of 18th century East Jaya, and is a complete package of beauty care, especially for brides (they didn’t tell us that at the spa, or maybe they tried to but they weren’t speaking much English).

I love Javanese massage –it’s based on thumb pressure: pushing and circling the muscles while the palm strokes  simultaneously, releasing the knots and improving blood circulation. Then the body scrub (“lulur”) — it’s a fragrant paste of sandal wood, turmeric, groundnuts, rice and other scented woods. The golden scrub is rubbed onto the skin for exfoliation and left to dry, then  rubbed off again, leaving the skin rosy and silky smooth. A fragrant herbal bath follows, and they dress you in this luxurious batik gown, and give you a cup of ginger tea while you sit for a certain procedure that can’t be posted here (hahaha — my book club gal pals know, though). It was a great spa experience, and I’d go back to Batam just for this. I wonder what kind of massage therapy schools the therapists attended!

I mention this because of a book I recently discovered, Wellness on the Islands: The Philippine Spa Experience by Elizabeth V. Reyes, photography by Luca Invernizzi Tettoni (also the team behind design coffeetable books such as Filipino style and The Tropical House: Cutting Edge Design), which I reviewed for Zen Health Magazine.

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The Verdict on Percy Jackson

I’ve had the Percy Jackson books thrust at me by random people because they know I’m a big Harry Potter fan, and people who really know me can tell them that the more people foist a book on me the less likely I am to pick it up. Hence, it’s taken me a while to pick up the Percy Jackson books.

I originally read the first book because I was planning on seeing the movie, but changed my mind about the movie when I heard it was a long way away from the book.  So I ended up reading on in the series instead. I finished all five books in the space of one week in February: the first two books in one night, and the next three books (borrowed from my cousin Chickoy) in one sitting.

Here goes my verdict post.

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